1. Field of the Invention
The invention concerns low-cost, easily manufacturable disposable single use, substantially dry, cleansing articles.
2. The Related Art
Personal cleansing and conditioning products have traditionally been marketed in a variety of forms such as bar soaps, creams, lotions, and gels. These formulations have attempted to satisfy a number of criteria to be acceptable to consumers. These criteria include cleansing effectiveness, skin feel, skin mildness and lather volume. Ideal personal cleansers should gently cleanse the skin or hair, cause little or no irritation, and not leave the skin or hair overly dry after frequent use.
A series of granted and pending patent applications have been published by Procter and Gamble describing substantially dry, disposable, personal cleansing products which address many of the aforementioned functionality concerns. These products are substantially dry articles having deposited onto a woven or non-woven cloth a cleansing composition of surfactant, structurant, skin conditioning agent and other performance ingredients. U.S. Pat. No. 5,951,991 (Wagner et al.) focuses on providing the substrate with a conditioning emulsion separately impregnated from the lathering surfactant onto the cloth substrate. U.S. Pat. No. 5,980,931 (Fowler et al.) emphasizes impregnation of oil soluble conditioning agents. WO 99/55303 (Albacarys et al.) describes skin care actives formulated with the cleansing composition. Manufacturing processes for these products are reported in U.S. Pat. No. 5,952,043 and U.S. Pat. No. 5,863,663, both to Mackey et al. These patents teach use of a continuous lipid phase with a high melting waxy material deposited onto the wipe substrate. The material is intended to be sufficiently brittle so as to be easily disrupted by low shear contact (e.g. during wiping of the skin) to readily release an internal skin conditioning phase, yet the material is required to be sufficiently tough to avoid premature release of the internal phase during the rigors of processing. A problem with this technology is that through compromise the continuous external lipid phase/internal polar phase is neither sufficiently robust for processing and handling nor sufficiently releasable under wash conditions to allow efficient release of conditioning agent onto the skin. A better wipe impregnation and skin conditioning system has been sought.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a disposable, substantially dry cleansing product featuring lathering surfactants deposited with an improved impregnation system onto a wiping article.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a disposable, substantially dry cleansing product having a cleansing composition coating on a flexible wiping cloth wherein the composition adheres without either brittleness or tackiness onto the cloth.
Still another object of the present invention is to provide a disposable, substantially dry cleansing product which includes an impregnation system allowing for improved manufacturability, better aesthetics and increased latherability.
These and other objects of the present invention will become more apparent in light of the following summary and disclosure.
A substantially dry cleansing product is provided which includes:
(i) a water insoluble substrate;
(ii) a lathering surfactant; and
(iii) a C5-C12 alkyl diol, the diol and total lathering surfactant being present in a weight ratio from about 1:1 to about 1:8.
Advantageously very small amounts of water may be present in the impregnated composition. Preferably the combined weight of alkyl diol and water to lathering surfactant may be in a weight ratio from about 3:1 to about 1:5.